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Zelda Breath of the Wild will seemingly have dual audio [Up: Nope]

This is good, I don't have to delay my starting of the game waiting for someone to make an undubbed version. Totally down with this, I hope some of the other Switch titles announced do the same.
 

daxgame

Member
Good example: the crying scene. I don't see why people think the Japanese version is emoting better. The English version sounds like someone who's so exasperated and broken they can barely even cry out behind their tears. The Japanese version sounds like someone who really wants us to know they're crying.

That's a good example indeed, because that's exactly what Anouma wanted apparently.
What are we discussing here... ?

Because it sounds like that's just your own, personal, interpretation of the scene.
 

hwy_61

Banned
Having taken a bit of Japanese in college and spent time with native speakers:

Japanese VA is NOT better than English VA. It feels more or less the same compared to natural, real-life speech.

Good example: the crying scene. I don't see why people think the Japanese version is emoting better. The English version sounds like someone who's so exasperated and broken they can barely even cry out behind their tears. The Japanese version sounds like someone who really wants us to know they're crying.

The intensity of the NA VA isn't enough for what's going on in the scene, though. That's why people ITT prefer every other VA more.
 
That's a good example indeed, because that's exactly what Anouma wanted apparently.
What are we discussing here... ?

Because it sounds like that's just your own, personal, interpretation of the scene.

I'm the consumer. The scene is for me, not for the director or producer.

The intensity of the NA VA isn't enough for what's going on in the scene, though. That's why people ITT prefer every other VA more.

Intensity != better emoting, though? It's like people who enjoy Japanese VA have written a completely different rulebook for what passes as convincing emotion.

There are plenty of bad English dubs. I'm not really a huge fan of Zelda's English VA, either. But the crying scene is basically an example of a case where the real divide is between people who like Japanese audio melodramatic acting (which for me takes me out of a scene because it reminds me that I'm listening to an actor using certain quirks characteristic of VA performances; get the same feeling from the LatAm performance) vs. what real people might actually sound like.
 

Zips

Member
Having taken a bit of Japanese in college and spent time with native speakers:

Japanese VA is NOT better than English VA. It feels more or less the same compared to natural, real-life speech.

Good example: the crying scene. I don't see why people think the Japanese version is emoting better. The English version sounds like someone who's so exasperated and broken they can barely even cry out behind their tears. The Japanese version sounds like someone who really wants us to know they're crying.

I am curious how many of the people saying they would use this multi-dub option (if true) to change it to Japanese or whatever else also know the language they would change it to.

I think VA gets a lot of slack when a person doesn't actually understand the language. It basically reduces it to how agreeable the person finds the pitches and tones expressed.
 

Ashby

Member
Bitchin'. Zelda was of course great but what I also loved about the JP VO was that the old man and woman voices were straight out of a Ghibli movie.
 

Charamiwa

Banned
I am curious how many of the people saying they would use this multi-dub option (if true) to change it to Japanese or whatever else also know the language they would change it to.

I think VA gets a lot of slack when a person doesn't actually understand the language. It basically reduces it to how agreeable the person finds the pitches and tones expressed.

Well subtitles exist, so that you can understand the dialogue. Personally I always try to watch a film in its original language, and I don't see subtitles as a bother. When you're used to them, you don't even notice you're reading something, so you get the best of both worlds : an understanding of what's going on, and the intended tone, dialogue and performance.

That's where I'm coming from when I say that I'd prefer the original dub. I said the same thing for Persona 5, but I feel like some people don't understand this point of view. To me it's just that they're not used to subtitles and can't understand why some people would prefer it.
 
It's bad enough that translations often can't convey the full original meaning, but it's a necessary evil. However when it comes to the emotion, you can understand that even in a foreign language. So I'll use the subs for meaning and the original VAs for the emotion intended by the director.

I'm glad this is an option because the english and japanese scenes have radically different feelings even though I don't think it was necessary at all.
 
Thanks, good video. Dat spanish... "translation"... yeuch.

I'm trying to not get involved in the never-ending "what's the better dub\way to dub discussion", but I'll just say that some people have a funny concept in mind when they suggest that the original (as in: the intended, the reference material) is worse than a foreign dubbing. That's actually the only one greenlit by the original authors, so it matches exactly their vision of the character. And yes, since the authors are japanese in this case, it brings their cultural nuances along.

You can dislike it and that's perfectly fine obviously, especially given the cultural differences and being used to different dubs, but a foreign dub can't be "better" - it can be more akin to your personal taste. But that's not how the character was painted to be, in reality. Let alone when there are always translation inaccuracies.

Its called localisation, literal translations is how you get bad translation work (see the horrible translation work done by whoever was hired by Wayforward in their Shantae games compared to the absolutely magnificent translation work done by the guy that was hired by Yatch Club Games for Shovel Knight) . Also, I hope you are not trying to base the spanish translation from the english one, becuase its based off directly from the japanses script, like NoE always does. I will also remind that we already found this trailer is cut in some funny ways for some languages. The spanish goron says a quote that seems to take info from two different quotes, and makes it longer. In english and other laguages you can hear the "Here it comes" only, but the info about "you will need this" could come from a quote before that that was cut in the trailer.
Same with english cutting the part where the king asks to not only save her daughter, but his people, mentioned in every language, with the japanese part cut more abruptly and the english one completly cutting it.

And funny you mention about the original always being the best, ok, let me propose a little fun game here.
Whats the original "best" dub of Bayonetta? The script was done in japanese, but the only voice acting at first was translated and done in english. With the WiiU version years after bringing a new japanese dub, but that dub being directed by its own creator.
Another fun case. What about Commandos: Behind the Enemy Lines? The games was made and scripted by spaniards, but the english and spaniard dubs were made at exactly the same time. Which one was the original there.
And me working on indie games, as a spaniard I try to script my games in english and spanish at the same time, and make both as good as they can be, trying to convey the same things but with jokes and phrases localised so both can be as fun as I want. If I wanted to choose voices I would also try to direct both and and a lover of voice acting in general, find the best for both languages.

Just some food for thought, because when characters are not real, like in cartoons and games, placing a "best" and "original" is not as easy as it sounds if good treatment and care has been put to its different versions.
Then comes opinions and preferences, but thats normal.
 
Everybody is jumping the gun a bit. Have we had more confirmation? We've had reps insisting 1080p, others insisting 60 fps. What's to say this guy isn't claiming something without knowing?

Edit: anybody claiming original dub is better than any other dub hasn't seen Cowboy Bebop or Baccano.
 

Wagram

Member
Probably will be the one time I choose Japanese audio over English.

I actually prefer the gibberish in Zelda games.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Great news if true. Would show Nintendo being very progressive. It makes me a bit sad that games rarely receive dubbing outside of English/Japanese, I would love to try Breath of the Wild in all sorts of languages honestly.
 
Why is it that all the romance language dubs say Irule? whats wrong with Hyrule?

I remember watching the spanish dub trailer, and a Nintendo representative from the youtube channel posted a comment saying like "We've seen plenty of people complaining about the way 'Hyrule' is pronounced 'Irule' but we've received confirmation from the dub team that after discussion with others and instructions from Nintendo, that 'Irule' is the proper and official way to say it in Spanish'

The issue is if you're going to dub it you can't leave english sounding words like 'Hai-rool' in the dub. It'd be awkward and jarring to have them all of a sudden go 'Bueno Link, ya que acabaste de matar a todos los ciudadanos de HAI-ROOL vamos a tomar un vasito de leche'

And I guess they saw the way it was spelled and translated as closely as possible to a spanish equivalent. Silent H, 'EE' sound for Y/I.
 
Wait. He said "VO" so "Original Voices". What do they call original voices though ? French/English or French/Japanese ? Or French/English/Japanese ?
Also, I don't think the European version will have voices tied to their original region considering the collector edition does has the USK/PEGI rating.

In that sentence , VO is obviously The japanese dub
 

tiijj

Member
My guess is there will be 3 versions

NA: English, Spanish, Japanese
EU: Italian, Spainish (coining this now), German, French, Japanese, Russian, English
JP: Japanese, English

They won't sell the NA ones in Canada lol

NA will have French - or at least the version released in Canada will.

I hope the Canadian version won't have the FR logo. Most if not all 3DS 1st party has those.

39KydXs.png
 

Zips

Member
Well subtitles exist, so that you can understand the dialogue. Personally I always try to watch a film in its original language, and I don't see subtitles as a bother. When you're used to them, you don't even notice you're reading something, so you get the best of both worlds : an understanding of what's going on, and the intended tone, dialogue and performance.

That's where I'm coming from when I say that I'd prefer the original dub. I said the same thing for Persona 5, but I feel like some people don't understand this point of view. To me it's just that they're not used to subtitles and can't understand why some people would prefer it.

Oh I assume the subtitles will be there even when it's the same language. That's an accessibility thing, and I like having them regardless.

I'm not so sure I would give a game's voice work the automatic designation of being what the designers wanted it to sound like. That makes it sound like it is automatically the best. A hair away from saying a script is only good and always best when in its native language.

I'm sure there are plenty of games and other media with voice work that is poorly done, even when in the native language of the developers. It may not be safe to assume the developers (and which individuals does that refer to?) were deeply entwined with the voice recordings and attached to a particular portrayal. These things are put together by huge teams and whoever is on the team responsible for the voice work may have their own tastes, and preferences that are different from others who helped put the whole package together. That's all aside from the limitations of working with whoever was available and chosen for the voice work as well, or things like having to cater to particular tastes of a market.

People have all sorts of preferences. I was just curious how many are opting for essentially subtitles accompanied by (to them) gibberish sounds, as opposed to knowing the language and having an understanding of when intonation is off, or words have been pronounced strangely with poor use of emphasis or something else.
 

Hypron

Member
Cool, I'll stick with Japanese since I like playing games in their original version and am learning the language.

Getting exposure to foreign languages is cool.
 

PSFan

Member
Will there be an option for a the old "mumbling" dub? I really don't want to listen to any VA when I play Zelda.
 
I mean, every voice dub preview Ive heard so far sounds fantastic. Yeah, I think the English one is the weakest of them all but I am only fluent in English and Japanese with the first being my native language so of course I am not qualified to "rate" any of them.

That being said, ANY game that offers multiple audio/voice options is a win in my book.
 

bachikarn

Member
Listening to all of them, I actually think the Japanese one might be the worst. Very overdone. The others are mostly similar with varying timings. Some of the timings are a bit off, or are slightly overdone.

This only applies to this one part though. We'll see how the overall performances are when the game comes out.

Yeah, I liked the Japanese version better at first, but watching it all together, I agree that the Japanese is the worst. I think in the flow of the trailer that the over toppness of the Japanese VA worked the best, but in the actual scene, I could see the English version being more appropriate.
 

Gurrry

Member
That Japanese trailer was much more impactful than the English one. So im glad I will have the option. However, I might actually be playing this on WiiU... so I doubt they do the same for that version.
 

brad-t

Member
If true, I'm gonna use the Japanese mostly because I'm a huge-ass nerd. Also maybe I just think the anime-style melodrama works better for that scene. Don't think we need to bicker about which one is better or not, as it's obviously just personal preference. It would be great if everyone has the option to enjoy the game as they wish.

Is it possible that without region-locking, Nintendo might just manufacture one cart for the worldwide release? It seems like the voice acting is extremely limited so they may be able to fit them all on the card.
 

daxgame

Member
I'm the consumer. The scene is for me, not for the director or producer.
No my friend, the scene is not for you, you are one among millions of consumers and each one would probably like a different dubbing style.
The director creates the character and the voice and the acting are part of that character. Ultimately, in this case, the japanese one is indeed the only real representation of it and the reference.

Its called localisation, literal translations is how you get bad translation work (see the horrible translation work done by whoever was hired by Wayforward in their Shantae games compared to the absolutely magnificent translation work done by the guy that was hired by Yatch Club Games for Shovel Knight) . Also, I hope you are not trying to base the spanish translation from the english one, becuase its based off directly from the japanses script, like NoE always does.
That's just your personal opinion, I prefer who translations who are closer to the original and cases like Ace Attorney are "how not localize" manuals for me.
A "literal translation" can indeed be very bad if the sentences who come out sound unrealistic, but that's part of doing a good job or not.
I'm not familiar with the games you listed but years ago, after finishing the 3rd Layton - not in english - I checked on youtube the last 15 minutes in japanese and I confirmed that the 5 european scripts are based on the english version, which matched.
So that's definitely not "how they always do", sadly.
Just PM me if you want to know the details.
And funny you mention about the original always being the best, ok, let me propose a little fun game here.
Whats the original "best" dub of Bayonetta? The script was done in japanese, but the only voice acting at first was translated and done in english. With the WiiU version years after bringing a new japanese dub, but that dub being directed by its own creator.
Then the japanese dub is the "best" - the original one, because it fits the creator's idea of the character. As in, that's how Bayonetta speaks.
On to the next one
Another fun case. What about Commandos: Behind the Enemy Lines? The games was made and scripted by spaniards, but the english and spaniard dubs were made at exactly the same time. Which one was the original there.
Obviously the spaniard one would be more faithful as that's the language the creators speak.
And me working on indie games, as a spaniard I try to script my games in english and spanish at the same time, and make both as good as they can be, trying to convey the same things but with jokes and phrases localised so both can be as fun as I want. If I wanted to choose voices I would also try to direct both and and a lover of voice acting in general, find the best for both languages.
I see no problem with that, not sure what you're trying to say here. If you're proficient in both languages, he fact that you yourself handle both versions means it's likely gonna be better.

Just some food for thought, because when characters are not real, like in cartoons and games, placing a "best" and "original" is not as easy as it sounds if good treatment and care has been put to its different versions.
Then comes opinions and preferences, but thats normal.
Oh sure, it's a really hard job. I never suggested it's easy or that it's possible to do it perfectly :). But it seems like we're trying to over complicate something which at least in Zelda's case is pretty clear: the original is the japanese one, and it is the "best" because that's exactly how they wanted it to be.
All the other dubbings are attempts at doing a good job and one might like it them or not, but it's a matter of personal preference.

But "disliking" the original and suggesting it overacts or stuff like that, just means that you don't like how the character was created itself - which is fine as japanese people don't speak, act and talk in the same manner as western people do and so on.
The fact remains that the character was created by a japanese person and dubbed by a japanese one - which is why it will still have a "japanese feeling" even if in the game it isn't japanese per-se. The voice of the character is the voice of the original VA - it's exactly why selections are made ! :)
 

PtM

Banned
No my friend, the scene is not for you, you are one among millions of consumers and each one would probably like a different dubbing style.
The director creates the character and the voice and the acting are part of that character. Ultimately, in this case, the japanese one is indeed the only real representation of it and the reference.


That's just your personal opinion, I prefer who translations who are closer to the original and cases like Ace Attorney are "how not localize" manuals for me.
A "literal translation" can indeed be very bad if the sentences who come out sound unrealistic, but that's part of doing a good job or not.
I'm not familiar with the games you listed but years ago, after finishing the 3rd Layton - not in english - I checked on youtube the last 15 minutes in japanese and I confirmed that the 5 european scripts are based on the english version, which matched.
So that's definitely not "how they always do", sadly.
Just PM me if you want to know the details.

Then the japanese dub is the "best" - the original one, because it fits the creator's idea of the character. As in, that's how Bayonetta speaks.
On to the next one

Obviously the spaniard one would be more faithful as that's the language the creators speak.

I see no problem with that, not sure what you're trying to say here. If you're proficient in both languages, he fact that you yourself handle both versions means it's likely gonna be better.


Oh sure, it's a really hard job. I never suggested it's easy or that it's possible to do it perfectly :). But it seems like we're trying to over complicate something which at least in Zelda's case is pretty clear: the original is the japanese one, and it is the "best" because that's exactly how they wanted it to be.
All the other dubbings are attempts at doing a good job and one might like it them or not, but it's a matter of personal preference.

But "disliking" the original and suggesting it overacts or stuff like that, just means that you don't like how the character was created itself - which is fine as japanese people don't speak, act and talk in the same manner as western people do and so on.
The fact remains that the character was created by a japanese person and dubbed by a japanese one - which is why it will still have a "japanese feeling" even if in the game it isn't japanese per-se. The voice of the character is the voice of the original VA - it's exactly why selections are made ! :)
That's just your personal opinion, hehehe.
 
But "disliking" the original and suggesting it overacts or stuff like that, just means that you don't like how the character was created itself - which is fine as japanese people don't speak, act and talk in the same manner as western people do and so on.
The fact remains that the character was created by a japanese person and dubbed by a japanese one - which is why it will still have a "japanese feeling" even if in the game it isn't japanese per-se. The voice of the character is the voice of the original VA - it's exactly why selections are made ! :)

Dude neither do japanese people talk or act like that in the real world. This is cringe worthy anime levels of overacting and you know it
 

Ascenion

Member
The intensity of the NA VA isn't enough for what's going on in the scene, though. That's why people ITT prefer every other VA more.
Yes but how do we know that? That scene has no context as of yet we don't yet know how she should sound.

Honestly Japanese and English dubs are two extremes. Neither is good. JP is too much and EN is too subdued. If I had to pick one it'd be English because I can at least spin that one different ways. However I think it's too early to call one or the other trash based on a 3 minute trailer.
 

Lebon14

Member
My guess is there will be 3 versions

NA: English, French, Spanish, Japanese
EU: Italian, Spainish (coining this now), German, French, Japanese, Russian, English
JP: Japanese, English

Fixed.

Don't forget Québec. 78% of the population speaks French...

EDIT

However, I wonder if Nintendo will have the French dub or have a separate QC French dub. I doubt that they will have a QC French one though.
But, I'm really happy for the dual audio. Jap dub+English sub for me. Frecnh is way too corny lol.
 
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